The “road rage” murder trial of NJ Detective Joseph Lamont Walker, charged with first degree murder for the road-side shooting death of Joseph Dean Harvey, Jr., originally scheduled to begin today, has been pushed back two months until Monday, July 21, 2014. Jury selection is now scheduled to begin on Friday, July 18, 2014.

Legal Insurrection has previously covered this case extensively, including at the links below. We’re also preparing a comprehensive overview of Maryland laws governing self-defense and defense of others to provide a robust and common foundation for discussion of the case as the trial proceeds.

As it happens, Maryland is among the minority of states that has effectively no self-defense statutes,. Instead, the laws governing use of force reside entirely in court decisions. This makes accessing MD self-defense law rather difficult for non-lawyers, a difficulty we will try to address with our MD self-defense law overview.

From Walker’s lawyers: “Since the shooting, Det. Walker has been suspended without pay, and is unable to pay for the legal costs and expenses to defend himself against the murder charge which carries a sentence of life imprisonment. As a result, Det. Walker is being assisted with the payment of legal fees and expenses by both the National Police Defense Foundation, led by Executive Director Joseph Occhipinti, and by the New Jersey State Policeman’s Benevolent Association, led by President Anthony Wieners.”

Additionally, the NPDF has set up a donation page on their website for Walker.

MD is the land of good gummint. If there is no law on self-defense, there may be no self-defense as a practical matter.

When animal-rights nuts burglarized a laboratory and ruined millions of dollars worth of equipment and experiments, there was this campaign to outlaw burglaries of research facilities, as if burglary itself were not a crime, and the resulting civil suit and damage award would be insufficient.

Oh, Maryland has PLENTY of law on self-defense, and it’s pretty mainstream (allowing that the “duty to retreat” element is pretty mainstream for the minority of states that impose a duty to retreat). Far more mainstream than, say, Ohio. And in some respects more so than even VA.

Yep, it was denied back in February. The judge ruled that while the prosecution may have been somewhat misleading it wasn’t enough to reverse the decision and there was still reason to proceed. He also ordered both sides to no longer talk to the press, if I remember correctly.